Part 2: GE Regulations Deep Dive: Lessons Learned and Future Challenges
Abbie Barondess
September 11, 2023
Editor’s Note: This is the second in a series of three articles examining Gainful Employment (GE) regulations. This first article provides an overview and brief timeline of GE. This article covers the 2014 GE regulations, lessons learned, and challenges to GE moving forward. The third article will provide an update on the current GE proposal, projected impacts, and NASFAA’s recommendations.
In 2014 the Obama administration set out to regulate GE for the second time. In place of a loan repayment rate, which was the basis of the litigation surrounding the 2011 rule, ED proposed a program cohort default rate (pCDR), which encapsulated both program completers and non-completers who received Title IV aid. The debt-to-earnings ratio (D/E metric) issued under the 2011 regulation, which applied only to program completers who received Title IV aid, remained in place. To pass, programs would have to have had a pCDR of less than 30%. Programs with a pCDR of 30% or higher in three consecutive cohorts failed the metric and lost Title IV eligibility. Program cohort default rates were removed from the final rule following comments from the American Association of Community Colleges and Association of Community College Trustees. The final rule was published on October 31, 2015, with an effective date of July 31, 2015.
